UK: “Salaam, Shalom – Jews and Muslims can now eat the same food”

Biblical Foods has secured agreement from the highest levels of a UK Beth Din (Jewish religious court) for their slaughterers to say a suitable form of tasmiyah.

They wish to discuss it with Muslim officials and scholars first, to check both sides are happy with it.

Any changes to customs and practices in shechita, that has been going on for thousands of years, might be slow.

Once we have agreement, I would like to invite you to a celebratory dinner where we can all can eat the same food (Jew and Muslim alike!)

It would be genuinely halal, as there will be no pre-slaughter electrocution

As I understand it, many Muslims are very dissatisfied with two particular aspects of most halal meat and poultry production in the UK. These are:-

1.Over 95% of halal meat and poultry has undergone pre-slaughter electrocution so that the animals are not conscious at slaughter.

2. The tasmiyah prayer is not always said by a slaughterer, but sometimes by loudspeaker.

Both of these render the produce (not halal) so it is mislabelled, (effectively fraudulent) and totally misleading to halal consumers, who buy it in good faith, believing it has been handled properly in accordance with their beliefs and requirements.

Organic Kosher meat and poultry conforms to all the principles of halal production, bar point 2 above, so would appear to be closer to genuine complete halal requirements than most food that is currently sold as halal in the UK.

As there is no Organic Halal poultry that slaughters without electrocution, we are often asked to supply Muslims.

We will begin supplying certified Organic Kosher poultry from early September 2012; readers can register at www.biblicalfoods.co.uk for a list of stockists and periodic updates. We will also do Organic Kosher lamb and beef.